Who Gets to Keep the House in a Florida Divorce Case?

Who Gets to Keep the House in a Florida Divorce Case?

Posted By
Dean Kantaras

If you are at the beginning of the Florida divorce process, one of your
greatest concerns might be about your home. Who will get it? Will either
of you get to keep it? Will your children be able to keep living there?
The answers to these questions depend on a variety of factors. To understand
the likely outcomes, it is important to have a basic grasp of how Florida
divorce law works.

Property division, the part of the divorce where assets and debts are split
up, is based on a concept calledequitable distribution. Under this theory, a judge’s job is to divide property in a way
that is fair but not necessarily even. Instead, a judge will take into
account circumstances such as:

How long you were married

The earning ability of each spouse

How much each spouse contributed to the marriage

The value of each piece of property

When applying these factors to the marital home, a judge is also likely
to look at whether there are children involved, which parent they will
be living with, and whether selling the home is a good option. It is important
to note that a judge can only divide marital property — anything
owned by one party before the marriage, even real estate, is generally
not part of the divorce, unless it later became jointly owned.

As an alternative to leaving this decision up to the judge, the parties
can work together to reach their own agreement about property division.
Things like additional property, mortgage payments, and spousal support
payments are often used as bargaining chips during this process. For some
couples, continuing to jointly own a home until children have grown up
may be a viable option.

For help with property division issues, consult the Tampa Bay
divorce attorneys at the Law Offices of K. Dean Kantaras, P.A.